Peace in our time? Alas no. Was: Why use Python when we've got Perl?

[James Logajan]

(The problem with these language wars is that there is no way for a
self-respecting arms merchant to sell to both sides; there just isn't
anything to sell.)

I suspect that computer language wars arise for some of the same reasons
some real wars arise: a battle over finite resources. In this case, the
finite resource is a programmer's time. I know I don't have time to find the
"Holy Grail" (ahem, sorry!) of languages by learning every language ever
invented. Once I've somehow settled on a language and spent an irretrievable
fraction of my life learning it, I get irritable when someone tells me I
have to do that process over again. For me, the interest in computer
languages per se passed a decade and a half ago. I've learned and glanced at
(and forgotten) far too many languages and notations (at least 22, probably
more). It is a tiny subset of all the languages that have been commercially
released, but to my mind is too bloody much. Bottom line for me (and I
suspect for others) is: Please don't ask me to change from X to Y unless you
have a damn good reason; my time is precious.

But sometimes people have to discard something that works perfectly fine and
learn another language, simply because they move into a group that mandates
the use of something else. Then the irritation and fight over languages
happens. There is no avoiding it I think, so these languages wars will go on
for as long as there are multiple languages (and anyone who thinks that will
change is dreaming).